The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [202]
The Maldives, much further north and east, have a very different history. They make up an archipelago consisting of some 1,200 islands, of which less than 200 are permanently inhabited. They have been inhabited since perhaps 500 BCE, and have never really been colonised. Ibn Battuta, it will be remembered, had an interesting time there (see pages 97, 112). They have their own language and script. The population is again heterogeneous, with a mixture of Sri Lankan, Indian, Arabic, and bits of African and Indonesian influences and origins, yet today they are all Muslim and there is little sign of ethnic tensions. Islam is the official religion, and indeed the practice of any other faith is prohibited. The economy is booming, based on tourism.37 And finally we can briefly list the Chagos Archipelago, and especially Diego Garcia, about which we will say more when we consider strategy in the ocean (see pages 281–5), and Christmas Island. The latter was uninhabited until the late nineteenth century, and then was a feifdom of the Clunies-Ross family, who imported Malay labour to exploit the island's phosphate deposits. Since 1948 the island has been administered by Australia, and recently it has played a prominent role in Australia's sorry attempts to stop asylum seekers getting from Indonesia to Australia.
We wrote extensively about the impact of technological changes on the ocean in the nineteenth century, stressing the role of steam ships. Since World War II new technology has continued to have a major significance, especially in the rise and fall of ports in the ocean, and in the sizes of the ships which ply it. We will look at changes in shipping and its ownership first.
There were dramatic changes in shipping after World War II. The old tramp steamers were often replaced by container ships and bulk ore and oil tankers. With the rise of flags of convenience from places like Panama and Liberia shipping became less tied to the flags of the traditional maritime powers. Between 1977 and 1987 the registered tonnage of ships belonging to European Union countries fell from 30 per cent to 17 per cent of the world total. Once Britain had 22 per cent of the world's tonnage, now it has only 2 per cent, while the United States went from 33 per cent to 5 per cent. If one classifies ships according to the flags they fly, the first three countries are Liberia, Panama and Japan.38 Broadly speaking, in the first world passenger traffic ended in the 1960s, to be replaced by air travel. As regards the Atlantic, in 1957 passenger traffic was evenly split between air and sea, but by 1967 the sea had only 7.5 per cent, and by 1973 only 1 per cent.39
Container ships first came on line for traffic between the USA and the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, and spread to the North Atlantic in the early 1960s. By 1984 around 75 per cent of liner trade linking developed countries was containerised, and by the early 1990s almost all liner trade worldwide was. Their sizes are given in 'TEU', that is Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit, as the standard container is 20 × 8 × 8 feet, though some are now 40 × 8 × 8 feet. The container ships are getting bigger and bigger: the first generation, 1964–67, were 1,000 TEU, now new ones are 6,000 TEU and more. In other terms, the largest container ships now carry the equivalent of 72,000 dwt.40
There are obvious advantages in terms of efficiency. Centuries ago on many coasts, such as Coromandel, ships stood off